Thursday, 5 September 2013

Oldhammer Weekend review. Part three.

Welcome to the table tour! Wargames Foundry welcomes people who want to drop in and have games so if you are able to visit Nottingham easily get in touch with them via their website which has a telephone number displayed on it. It's also a great place to hold a get-together. Those of you going to Blog-Con may be interested to see a few new tables the guys have put together since your recce mission.

Several blogging legends in this snap, I dare not unmask them just in case! This is a row of newly constructed tables built especially for the busy, upcoming period of scheduled events at Foundry. Right at the opposite end of the tables is a rack of Oldhammer minis cast up especially for the day! The table closest is the one we used for Orc's Drift (with Thantsants' excellent terrain), see part two for more details on that one.

This is Harry's amazing Blood Bowl stadium which saw plenty of action over the weekend.

This is the big table used for the 'Rumble in the Jungle' game organised by Padre. This game was huge (and impressive) and took up nearly the entire weekend!

There were several exotic units included in Padre's game, as well as the usual Lustrian suspects. I absolutely loved this armoured War-Gorilla unit!

All the exploring armies had to loot the many temples dotted about (note the siege equipment the Elves are carrying) in order to achieve their objectives.

Random encounters and refereed madness was the order of the day in this fine example of the almost lost art of GM'd Warhammer.

One of the stand alone tables available. Beware the temptation of playing wargames so close to racks of lovely minis! That's the board used for the Realm of Chaos games behind it, see part one for more detail on that.

There was a lot of LASER-cut MDF scenery available for use and you can see some of it here. I'm not sure who brought it to be honest but I know the Foundry has some terrain available. This battlefield is one of the big, connected row of tables depicted in the first photo.

This is one of the tables built for the British TV program 'Midsomer Murders'. Two of them stand on enclosed boxes and are tricky to lean over because you can't get your toes under them, but this one is worth the effort, it's quite lovely.

This is the second table on an enclosed box, the problems are exacerbated by the unusable nature of the first foot of board all the way around and it's not quite as attractive as the other one. It would be OK for a game of Saga in one of the corners though.

This one you can get your feet under and is also my favourite of the three. Hoping to get a game in on this one next time I'm down!

There was one more table in use, quite a large one too. There were reputedly 18000 points (3rd edition Warhammer) of troops in this game alone. Most people agreed that Nico, one of the participants, had the most drool-worthy army of the weekend. Golgfag's army was a stunning sight too though and full of classic lead.

I love this action shot of Golgfag's Orc General exhorting his rock lobber to fire faster while simultaneously goading the Trolls forward!

Even had we been in a shed, the people I met and the atmosphere they created was what made this, without exaggeration, the best gaming experience of my life. And the fact that the venue was simply awesome was a massive bonus! As a venue the Foundry certainly deserves all the praise it gets of course, the Ansell clan are incredible hosts.

I am a born-again responsible gamer. My conquest of the Etherweb will be slow, but inevitable.

Mission Statement.

This Blog will be used to revolutionise wargaming, succeeding where others have failed. Oh yes it will! I will teach you all the error of your ways and subvert you to my cause. I am on a crusade to bring back the GamesMaster to all tabletop battles. On the way, I will track my wargaming progress project by project and as a whole, bringing projects to completion and moving on to new challenges. I have moved away from the hollow, charmless gaming that has become a kind of standard thanks to our own complacency and develop a gaming style that encompasses the gaming and role-play values of the 80s and early 90s (my youth) whilst going beyond what that era achieved into exhilarating new realms of fun. I will therefore use the Blog to record my battle and keep on the right course with my overall philosophy in the same way as I fortify my discipline with individual projects. I will use the blogging platform to challenge my painting, modelling and photography skills, though I will not allow the pursuit of high standards to interfere with the deadlines I set myself so expect a mixture of different quality paint jobs, photos et cetera. The aspiration to perfection is always a long term goal, so get stuff done in the mean time. The blog will come in handy for insurance purposes, tremble in fear claims negotiators. I promise not to use the Blog as a vacuous diary, sharing a life which though personally gratifying is possibly outwardly dull. Though I am pretty neat. I will utilise gentle humour often, as is my way, without descending into constant joke-telling. I will not shy away from subtle adult humour and occasional vulgarity (this will not include serious swear words however) though only rarely and in always in context. This is because I like my wargaming to have a moral awareness of it’s real life counterpart (war) in amongst all the fun times. I will not post whilst drunk. I will never review movies, books or anything else for that matter though I may recommend stuff for gaming inspiration purposes and talk about a fun time I had doing something that linked to my gaming activities. I will strive to avoid discussing the world in absolute terms, accepting rather that reality is in the eye of the beholder and that maturity acknowledges variety. I want the hobby to be inclusive and will avoid misogynistic blogger staples such as using pictures of ladies breasts to liven up mediocre posts. I will ask you now once, for the first and last time, to comment and follow if you feel able as these signs of recognition are greatly appreciated. I will never again seek any acclamation for what I’m doing. As a final point, I will make it clear that I thinkGamers, us, ourselves, are responsible for the state of wargaming, NOT Games Workshop, Wizards of the Coast et cetera who despite being in the grasp of vile corporate vampires actually carry out, diligently and with dignity, a worthy and thankless task. If anything goes downhill people are far too quick to blame the governing body, when they should be taking personal responsibility first and foremost. Wargamers of the world, the time for excuses is past, it is time to have incredible fun!